Love endures long and is patient and kind; love never is envious nor boils over with jealousy, is not boastful or vainglorious, does not display itself haughtily. It is not conceited (arrogant and inflated with pride); it is not rude (unmannerly) and does not act unbecomingly. Love (God’s love in us) does not insist on its own rights or its own way, for it is not self-seeking; it is not touchy or fretful or resentful; it takes no account of the evil done to it [it pays no attention to a suffered wrong]. It does not rejoice at injustice and unrighteousness, but rejoices when right and truth prevail. Love bears up under anything and everything that comes, is ever ready to believe the best of every person, its hopes are fadeless under all circumstances, and it endures everything [without weakening]. Love never fails… (verses 4-8, The Amplified Bible).

That kind of love is the distinguishing mark of a Christian. We’re called to live a life of love just like Jesus did.
Walking in love means we lay down our own selfish tendencies and desires. We set aside our feelings and behave kindly and gently to those around us, regardless of how they act. We don’t have to be concerned about looking out for our rights, because when we walk in love, God takes care of us!

God dealt with the Israelites in two ways: He told them to keep His statutes and ordinances, and He told them to obey His voice. Throughout all generations God never intended for His people to have only the written ordinances. If they would listen and obey the statutes and ordinances, they would also have His voice coming to them telling them what to do.

There were times when God spoke to Israel regarding specific situations. He told them what to do to get victory because He was their God and they were His people.

As long as they obeyed His voice, no enemy could stand before them. There might be many standing against them who were stronger in the natural realm, but that did not matter. As long as they obeyed the voice of the Lord, He moved supernaturally and they walked in victory because God was with them.

But this thing commanded I them, saying, Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and ye shall be my people: and walk ye in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well unto you (Jeremiah 7:23).

The Father was continually telling Israel, “I will be your God. I will take care of you. I will meet all your needs. Just obey My voice and keep My Word.” Isaiah 1:19 says, “If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land.”

In the same way, God can only go as far as we’ll go with Him. God says in 1 Samuel 2:30, “…them that honour me I will honour, and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed.” How much you honor God in your life is how much God can honor you. Whatever area you hold back from Him, in whatever area you are disobedient, that is the area He can’t bless. You’ve closed the door to Him in that area because of your disobedience. As we continue our study of obedience, we’ll see that all through His Word God makes it very clear that if we want things to go well for us in this earth we must choose to obey what He says. God’s way is the only way that liberates us from bondage into victory.

Gloria Copeland

May He grant you out of the rich treasury of His glory to be strengthened and reinforced with mighty power in he inner man by the (Holy) Spirit [Himself]—indwelling your innermost being and personality. May Christ through your faith [actually] dwell—settle down, abide, make His permanent home—in your hearts! May you be rooted deep in love and founded securely on love, that you may have the power and be strong to apprehend and grasp with all the saints (God’s devoted people, the experience of that love) what is the breadth and length and height and depth [of it]; that you may really come] to know—practically, through experience for yourselves— the love of Christ, which far surpasses mere knowledge (without experience); that you may be filled (through all your being) unto all the fullness of God—[that is] may have the richest measure of the divine Presence, and become a body wholly filled and flooded with God Himself! Now to Him Who, by (in consequence of) the [action of His] power that is at work within us, is able to [carry out His purpose and] do superabundantly, far over and above all that we [dare] ask or think—infinitely beyond our highest prayers, desires, thoughts, hopes or dreams—To Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever. Amen—so be it (Ephesians 3:16-21, The Amplified Bible).

I believe with all my heart that His Church is rising up glorious in our day. His Body is coming to the place for which He has waited thousands of years. As we make ourselves available to God and obey Him, He will be able to manifest Himself in the earth as He has yearned to do.

So choose to be in the right group. Join in with those who fear God, who speak of His goodness and mercy, who honor and respect Him. Choose to allow Him in every part of your life…and watch His goodness unfold!

Gloria Copeland

The blessings of God cannot flow to us when we are livingin disobedience, even if we are born-again, Spirit-filled Christians. Because of a low level of obedience and spiritual maturity, the Church has just barely scratched the surface of the blessings of God.

God wants us to live in the earth like we were already in heaven. Jesus taught the disciples to pray “Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10). Deuteronomy 11 talks about the Lord giving days of heaven upon the earth. Wherever we walk, the kingdom of heaven should be manifested and in control. In many ways we are like little children, but we are growing and beginning to hear and to see the hope of our calling, and our inheritance in the saints in light (Ephesians 4:4; Colossians 1:12).

We already are born again. We are created in the image of God. We are citizens of that place called heaven. The kingdom of God is in us. The Spirit of God lives in us. He is here to take dominion now. Yet, if we do not walk with Him, obey Him and get our minds renewed to what He says, we give Him no place to move in our lives. We shut Him out and do not allow Him to take dominion in the earth through us. The dominion Jesus exercises in the earth is through His Body. He is the Head; we are the Body.

God has always desired to do mighty things in the earth, to overwhelm this world with His presence, to dwell in the midst of His people. He has always desired to manifest Himself. He has been waiting generation after generation for a people who would find out what He is like, believe His Word and dare to walk in it—a people who would know Him and comprehend Him, a people who would walk and talk and act like the Father and the Son.

Gloria Copeland

And now we call the proud happy; yea, they that work wickedness are set up; yea, they that tempt God are even delivered.Then they that feared the Lord spake often one to another: and the Lord hearkened, and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the Lord, and that thought upon his name. And they shall be mine, saith the Lord of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels; and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him. Then shall ye return, and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not (Malachi 3:15-18).

The Lord hears when we talk to one another. He knows those who have respect and honor for Him. And He knows those who don’t.

You can be in either group. We can be in the first group who has words that are stout against God. Or, we can be in the second group who fears God and speaks often about His goodness and His mercy. God told Israel in Exodus 19:5 if they would obey His voice and keep His covenant, they would be His peculiar treasure, or His special treasure, above all others in the earth. Here He refers to them as jewels. We think of treasure as gold and jewels. God’s treasure is an obedient people. He paves His streets with gold, but He is able to achieve His dream for His family with a people who know and obey Him. You can be that treasure to Him. It is your choice.

You have to be willing and obedient in order to walk in victory (Isaiah 1:19). If you are just talking a good game, but not doing the Word, you are not being willing and obedient. You have to be willing and obedient to walk in the blessing of God.

Isaiah 3 shows us the contrast between the righteous and the wicked. (Remember, God does not condemn the righteous with the wicked. He appeared to the righteous Lot and got him out of Sodom and Gomorrah.)

“Say ye to the righteous, that it shall be well with him: for they shall eat the fruit of their doings. Woe unto the wicked! it shall be ill with him: for the reward of his hands shall be given him” (Isaiah 3:10-11).

God makes a difference between the righteous and the wicked, between the obedient and the disobedient. He is no respecter of persons (Acts 10:34), but He is a respecter of obedience and faith. He makes a difference between those who obey Him and those who do not.

The whole world could be in trouble and without any resources or abilities, while the Church—if we are obedient to God—would have plenty. Psalm 91:7 says, “A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand; but it shall not come nigh thee.”

Gloria Copeland

God has always had to deal with a disobedient people. That has been His reward for His goodness and His mercy. He called out to generation after generation in love and mercy:

…Hear ye the words of this covenant, and do them. For I earnestly protested unto your fathers in the day that I brought them up out of the land of Egypt, even unto this day, rising early and protesting, saying, Obey my voice (Jeremiah 11:6-7).

“I earnestly protested and pleaded with the fathers. I rose up early and told them to obey My voice.” That is what God has done through the generations. He has continually tried to get His very best to His people, His special treasure.

He said, “I rose up early. I protested. I pleaded. I proclaimed, ‘Obey My voice.’”

“Yet they obeyed not, nor inclined their ear, but walked every one in the imagination of their evil heart” (Jeremiah 11:8).

Let’s look at Deuteronomy 5:29. Here the heart of God is saying once again, “O that there were such an heart in them, that they would fear me, and keep all my commandments always, that it might be well with them, and with their children for ever!”

This is the heart of God yearning over His special people, yearning over the people He formed for Himself. Although we are not in the same position as Israel was, God is in the same position with us where our obedience to the new covenant is concerned.

For I will take you from among the heathen, and gather you out of all countries, and will bring you into your own land. Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart [of death] out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them. And ye shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; and ye shall be my people, and I will be your God (Ezekiel 36:24-28).

He said He would put a new heart in them. You and I have that new heart if we’ve made Jesus Lord of our lives. We not only have a new heart, but we also have God’s Spirit dwelling in us to teach us to walk in His ways and give us individual guidance. When we come before the Lord on that great day for our rewards, we will have no excuse for not fulfilling His will. He has put a new spirit in us. His Spirit within us teaches us, counsels us and manifests the presence of Jesus in us.

Gloria Copeland

We need to fight against compromise by arming ourselves with the commitment to suffer in the flesh rather than fail to please God. To suffer in the flesh doesn’t mean to bear sickness and poverty without complaining. Jesus already bore sickness and poverty for us along with every other curse of the law so that we can be free from those things. We are expected to resist that curse in Jesus’ Name.

Suffering in the flesh is making your flesh do something it doesn’t want to do. It’s dedicating yourself to do what’s pleasing to God even when it causes your flesh discomfort.

When you’re ready to do that, you’ll go beyond just “not sinning” and into a life that’s pleasing to God. You’ll be ready to lay down those things that you enjoy, things that aren’t necessarily bad in themselves, yet they are hindering your walk with God.

If you want to walk in the best God has for you, those are the kinds of sacrifices you must make, for Jesus said: “He who does not take up his cross and follow Me [that is, cleave steadfastly to Me, conforming wholly to My example in living and if need be in dying also] is not worthy of Me. Whoever finds his [lower] life will lose [the higher life], and whosoever loses his [lower] life on My account will find [the higher life]” (Matthew 10:38-39, AMP).

If you could see what God has for you in the higher life, you would immediately let go of the mundane things of the world. You would drop that junk so fast you wouldn’t even know which way it went. But you’re not going to be able to see it and then make your decision.

You have to step into that higher life by faith. You have to lay down your life because the Word says to do it. Then and only then will you discover the wonders that are waiting on the other side of your obedience.

I’m sure Enoch didn’t know what the higher life held for him. He probably had no idea that he’d be the first man ever raptured. But he was. Hebrews 11:5 says, “By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death…for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God.”

Gloria Copeland

James 3:2-6
KJV—For in many things we offend all.
If any man offend not in word, the same
is a perfect man, and able also to bridle
the whole body. Behold, we put bits in the
horses’ mouths, that they may obey us; and
we turn about their whole body. Behold
also the ships, which though they be so
great, and are driven of fierce winds, yet are
they turned about with a very small helm,
whithersoever the governor listeth.

Even so the tongue is a little member, and
boasteth great things. Behold, how great a
matter a little fire kindleth! And the tongue
is a fire, a world of iniquity: so is the tongue
among our members, that it defileth the
whole body, and setteth on fire the course
of nature; and it is set on fire of hell.

Amp—For we all often stumble and fall
and offend in many things. And if any one
does not offend in speech—never says the
wrong things—he is a fully developed character
and a perfect man, able to control his
whole body and to curb his entire nature. If
we set bits in the horses’ mouths to make
them obey us, we can turn their whole bodies
about. Likewise look at the ships, though
they are so great and are driven by rough
winds, they are steered by a very small rudder
wherever the impulse of the helmsman
determines. Even so the tongue is a little
member, and it can boast of great things.
See how much wood or how great a forest
a tiny spark can set ablaze! And the
tongue [is] a fire. [The tongue is a] world of
wickedness set among our members, contaminating
and depraving the whole body
and setting on fire the wheel of birth—the
cycle of man’s nature—being itself ignited by
hell (Gehenna).

Moffatt—We all make many a slip, but whoever
avoids slips of speech is a perfect
man; he can bridle the whole of the body
as well as the tongue. We put bridles into
the mouths of horses to make them obey
us, and so, you see, we can move the whole
of their bodies. Look at ships too; for all
their size and speed under stiff winds, they
are turned by a tiny rudder wherever the
mind of the steersman chooses. So the
tongue is a small member of the body, but
it can boast of great exploits. What a forest
is set ablaze by a little spark of fire! And
the tongue is a fire, the tongue proves a
very world of mischief among our members,
staining the whole of the body and setting
fire to the round circle of existence with a
flame fed by hell.

NEB—All of us often go wrong; the man
who never says a wrong thing is a perfect
character, able to bridle his whole being.
If we put bits into horses’ mouths to
make them obey our will, we can direct their
whole body. Or think of ships: large they
may be, yet even when driven by strong
gales they can be directed by a tiny rudder
on whatever course the helmsman chooses.
So with the tongue. It is a small member but
it can make huge claims. What an immense
stack of timber can be set ablaze by the tiniest
spark! And the tongue is in effect a fire.
It represents among our members the world
with all its wickedness; it pollutes our whole
being; it keeps the wheel of our existence
red-hot, and its flames are fed by hell.

Gloria Copeland

Proverbs 28:7
KJV—Whoso keepeth the law is a wise
son: but he that is a companion of riotous
men shameth his father.

NKJV—Whoever keeps the law is a discerning
son, but a companion of gluttons
shames his father.

NIV—He who keeps the law is a discerning
son, but a companion of gluttons
disgraces his father.

Amp—Whoever keeps the law [of God and
man] is a wise son, but he who is a companion
of gluttons and the carousing, self-indulgent
and extravagant shames his father.

Matthew 18:10
KJV—Take heed that ye despise not one
of these little ones; for I say unto you, that
in heaven their angels do always behold
the face of my Father which is in heaven.

NIV—See that you do not look down on
one of these little ones. For I tell you that
their angels in heaven always see the face
of my Father in heaven.

Amp—Beware that you do not despise
or feel scornful toward or think little of
one of these little ones, for I tell you that
in heaven their angels always are in the
presence of and look upon the face of My
Father Who is in heaven.

Luke 2:40
NKJV—And the Child grew and became
strong in spirit, filled with wisdom; and
the grace of God was upon Him.

NIV—And the child grew and became
strong; he was filled with wisdom, and the
grace of God was upon him.

Amp—And the Child grew and became
strong in spirit, filled with wisdom, and
the grace (favor and spiritual blessing) of
God was upon Him.

Ephesians 6:1-3
KJV—Children, obey your parents in the
Lord: for this is right. Honour thy father
and mother; which is the first commandment
with promise; that it may be well
with thee, and thou mayest live long on
the earth.

NIV—Children, obey your parents in the
Lord, for this is right. “Honor your father
and mother”—which is the first commandment
with a promise—“that it may go well
with you and that you may enjoy long life
on the earth.”

Weymouth—Children, be obedient to
your parents as a Christian duty, for this
is right. “Honor your father and your
mother”—this is the first commandment
which has a promise added to it—“so that
it may be well with you, and that you may
live long on the earth.”

Gloria Copeland

Proverbs 4:1
KJV—Hear, ye children, the instruction of
a father, and attend to know understanding.

NKJV—Hear, my children, the instruction
of a father, and give attention to know
understanding.

NIV—Listen, my sons, to a father’s instruction;
pay attention and gain understanding.

Proverbs 6:20-22
KJV—My son, keep thy father’s commandment,
and forsake not the law of thy
mother: Bind them continually upon thine
heart, and tie them about thy neck. When
thou goest, it shall lead thee; when thou
sleepest, it shall keep thee; and when
thou awakest, it shall talk with thee.

NIV—My son, keep your father’s commands
and do not forsake your mother’s
teaching. Bind them upon your heart forever;
fasten them around your neck. When
you walk, they will guide you; when you
sleep, they will watch over you; when you
awake, they will speak to you.

Amp—My son, keep your father’s [Godgiven]
commandment, and forsake not
the law of [God] your mother [taught you].
Bind them continually upon your heart,
and tie them about your neck. When you
go, [the Word of your parents’ God] it
shall lead you; when you sleep, it shall
keep you, and when you waken, it shall
talk with you.

Proverbs 13:1
KJV—A wise son heareth his father’s
instruction.

NKJV—A wise son heeds his father’s
instruction.

Proverbs 15:5
KJV—A fool despiseth his father’s instruction:
but he that regardeth reproof is prudent.

NKJV—A fool despises his father’s instruction,
but he who receives correction is prudent.

NIV—A fool spurns his father’s discipline,
but whoever heeds correction shows
prudence.

Proverbs 20:11
KJV—Even a child is known by his doings,
whether his work be pure, and
whether it be right.

NIV—Even a child is known by his actions,
by whether his conduct is pure and right.

Amp—Even a child is known by his acts,
whether or not what he does is pure and right.

Proverbs 23:22
KJV—Hearken unto thy father that begat
thee, and despise not thy mother when
she is old.

NKJV—Listen to your father who begot
you, and do not despise your mother
when she is old.

NIV—Listen to your father, who gave you
life, and do not despise your mother when
she is old.

Gloria Copeland